WWE Considering Major Changes for 2016 Slammy Awards

This year’s WWE Slammy Awards are in the bag, and there are some major changes in store for the show next year. This year’s ceremony featured a night of mostly ridiculous moments, whether it was the appearance of Santino Marella or the awkward reenactment of Steve Harvey’s Miss Universe flub by R-Truth and Paige. But there were also some problems that plagued the ceremony: namely, that very few of the major stars who won actually showed up to claim their prize. Seriously, it was mostly just Seth Rollins who bothered to take the time to come.

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the voting for the Slammy Awards was once again legit this year, as WWE didn’t pick the winners, despite speculation that voting was somehow rigged. So that’s one positive there, although it led to the aforementioned negative. Since WWE doesn’t know who the winners are going to be until the night of the show, it’s kind of hard to know which top stars to fly in for the show. On Monday night alone, The Rock, Ronda Rousey, Brock Lesnar, Sting, John Cena and The Undertaker all won awards, and none were there to accept them in person, which begs the question of why we even have a Slammy Awards if the big stars can’t be bothered to show up to accept them. Granted, the Slammys aren’t exactly the height of prestige anyway, but if WWE wants the show to be a ratings winner, it would behoove them to act like it.

One of the major changes that are currently being considered for the Slammys is to do the voting one week ahead of time, so that the company can fly in all the winners they need to bring in. And if certain superstars have prior commitments, WWE could send a film crew to get a statement to air for the live audience. Of course, the risk here is that spoilers for the winners would get leaked in the week between the end of voting and the airing of the show. But it might be a risk worth taking to avoid giving off the impression that the awards don’t matter to the bigger stars.

The other major proposed change for the Slammys is to move the ceremony to WrestleMania Week, since most of the big stars will already be in town. However, this would also mean adding another major event to an already crowded week. Putting it on the Raw before Wrestlemania would undermine the final build for the biggest show of the year. But putting it on the Raw after Wrestlemania would similarly take away from what’s now routinely the biggest Raw of the year. So it seems like WWE is having a hard time figuring out how to make these damn Slammy Awards work. For my money, I miss when the Slammy Awards were a black tie affair. The memories of Owen Hart “winning” alone are enough to make me smile.

Credit: WWE

But what do you think WWE should do about the Slammy Awards? Sound off in the comments!